Waiting for Sunrise
by Elissar
Summary: The Titans foil what seems like a runofthemill bank robbery, but then Robin finds something there that draws them into a plot much bigger than a simple heist. Now they’ve got only one night to stop the bad guys, save the city…and save themselves.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I'm sure nobody cares, but I'm back, finally got my life in order, got all my college-related things done, finally found myself with new ideas and time, and got back to writing. I've not penned anything in months, so I may be a little rusty…be gentle.

PS: for our purposes here '---' means "elsewhere, at the same time" just to be sure no one gets lost, not that I don't trust most of you...

Disclaimer: These are so pointless…but I'm not one to tempt fate without a good reason. I do not own Teen Titans.

**4:33pm**

"Come on Jerry, hurry up and put the money in the bag!" half yelled half whispered a man in green army camouflage and a ski-mask from behind the teller's counter.

"Gil, get over here and help me! Mike and Steve have all the people on the floor, ain't no one goin' nowhere." The man kept furiously stuffing bricks of hundred dollar bills into a duffle bag as he shouted.

The other man in fatigues and ski-mask lowered his AK-47 from where it had been aimed at several very terrified looking people, all lying on the marble floor, all with their wrists zip-tied behind their backs. He turned and ran into the open vault, wasting no time in grabbing a duffle bag and hurriedly stuffing cash into it.

"4 minutes guys, hurry it up!" Yelled the man behind the counter, glancing down at his watch. He turned slowly over the entire lobby of the bank "KEEP YOUR DAMN HEADS DOWN!" he screamed, shouldering his AK from its position at his side. His hand unconsciously moved into his pocket, fingering the ornate key and ring he had pulled from a safety deposit box.

Those that didn't already have their heads pressed against the cold stone floor slammed them back; face down, the distorted reflections of the polished marble looking back at them.

"Steve" he called to the fourth camo-clad robber on the opposite end of the lobby from him, "go now and get the van started. 2 minutes guys!" he called over his shoulder to the two men in the vault. He walked out from around the counter, into the middle of the lobby, stepping into a shaft of light from the skylight that allowed so much of the slowly shrinking daylight to pour in from above.

'What a job' he thought, a devious smile coming to his lips 'one little lock-box and we get paid two million, plus any of the cash we want to grab in the process.'

A duffle bag thudded heavily to the ground next to him, along with two more. Jerry and Gil quickly followed them, a bag in each hand, rifles slung on their backs.

Mike took his left hand off the AK's grip and picked up a bag. He glanced at his watch once more, and then nodded at the other two.

"Ok, time to go."

"This is going perfect Mike," Jerry said, taking a moment to set down his bag to adjust his ski mask, "you really know how to plan 'em." As if on cue, a green ball of light went whizzing past Mike's head, striking Jerry squarely in the face, sending him flying onto the ground and sliding back into the vault.

Gil and Mike looked at each other; both puzzled and stunned, just as one of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows in the front of the lobby exploded. The robbers turned back to the window, and no sooner had they done so, then a blue beam streaked through the opening and into Gil's chest, sending him sprawling to the floor.

In a split second Mike saw red and blue blurs race into the lobby. The red one was coming right at him, he realized it was Robin. 'Damn Teen Titans' he thought, raising his right arm as best as he could, holding the heavy rifle in one hand, and pulled the trigger. Unleashing a wild spray of bullets at his attacker before black energy sliced his gun in two. He dropped the bag and tried to run the other way, but didn't take a single step before he was tripped up by black energy around his legs. He fell to the ground, smacking his head against the marble floor, knocking himself unconscious.

"God that hurts."

Raven turned from where she was standing above the unconscious bank robbers, to see Robin leaning heavily against the window frame, his right leg out-stretched, and his hands pressing on his thigh.

"Robin! Have you been shot?" She worriedly asked, racing over to him.

"Yeah, but just in the leg, so it's not bad" he took a deep breath, looking down from her to his leg and continued "I'm pretty sure it just went right through, it'd hurt a hell of a lot worse if it'd hit the bone."

At that moment, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg all walked in.

"Who knew the guy had a tazer with him?" beast boy said, rubbing his arm and then trying to flatten down all of his standing green hair.

"You just gotta learn not to let the bad guts reach into their pockets befo—**Whoa**" Cyborg exclaimed as he saw the blood quickly pooling under Robin's leg.

"Robin!" Starfire cried, rushing quickly to his other side. "Are you alright? What happened? Does it hurt? Will you be ok?" She frantically asked in rapid-fire succession.

"I got hit, it was a lucky shot, it hurts a little, and I'll be fine." He answered all her questions just as quickly, seeing her calm down slightly, he turned his head back towards Raven "Would you please just heal this now, I'm sick of bleeding all over the floor."

Raven nodded and told him to move his hands, she checked the wound, and to her surprise, it was straight through, hitting nothing vital, but leaving a rather painfully large hole. She pressed her hands against his leg, a blue light glowing out from them and holding for a few seconds before disappearing. She stood up, examining her now blood-soaked hands.

"Much better, thanks Raven." Robin said as he bent his leg back and forth to test it. The other Titans all looked relieved, as well as thankful it wasn't any worse. Cyborg looked over the lobby, there were still half a dozen people clinging to the ground as if they would fall into the ceiling.

"Hey, everyone, it's the Teen Titans, we've got the situation under control, you're all safe now." He announced to the lobby. The hostages very cautiously looked up, then began getting to their feet, just as the Titans were walking out through their own custom made doorway.

"Well team, no worse for the ware, we stopped the bad guys, we're all ok, and now that the police are here" Robin added, as half a dozen squad cars screech to a halt at the front of a bank "I think we can leave this mess, to them."

"Alright, who's up for some meatloaf? Cause I wanna make my special recipe!" Cyborg exuberantly asked.

"If by **meat** you mean _tofu_…" Beast Boy interrupted.

"Oh please, not this again." Raven sighed, shaking her head.

Robin and Starfire kept walking as Beast Boy and Cyborg shouted back and forth at each other with Raven trying to get them to stop and keep moving. Robin stopped and put a hand to his pocket; not satisfied with the result, he put his hands in his pockets then took them out with an aggravated sigh.

"I left my communicator back there, I must have dropped it when I got hit." He turned back towards the bank and made his way inside.

The police were milling about, collecting evidence and taking statements from all the witnesses. They had already picked up the unconscious bodies of three of the four robbers, but Mike still lay unattended in the middle of the lobby floor. Robin quickly spotted his bright yellow communicator against the polished marble background. He picked it up, and as he stuffed it into his pocket, just as he turned to leave, a glimmer caught his eye.

He took a few steps over to where he'd seen it, next to Mike's unaware form. Lying just outside of his pocket was a very strange looking golden key on a chain. He wasn't sure why, but it occurred to him that he should pick it up and take it with him. He quickly bent down, and grabbed the key; as he crouched down he lifted the key in front of his eyes for a moment, examining it intently before a quick siren burst snapped him out of it and he slid the key into his pocket.

**5:06**

"_What exactly do you mean by 'the mission failed'_!?" A man in a black coat and suit shouted at another man with wild, dirty-blonde hair, slamming his fist into the door of the black Mercedes he was standing next to; the two men flaking him only adding to the strangely cold ferocity.

"Yes sir, our men—"

"Your men, Asher, _they were **your** men_."

"Yes sir, I contracted out to a local group, I assumed they would know the set-up better than my own men…."

"Well you were wrong, Asher, and now the police have both them, and the contents of my box in their possession. You have made things much more complicated for me." He said calmly, his voice filled with malice, the two imposing bodyguards at his side each taking a step forward.

"I'm sorry sir. The police have all four men in custody, as well as your property. I will take care of the problem immediately."

"I trust you will not fail me again, the consequences would prove…dire." He finished, looking slowly from Asher to the ruthless looking guard at his side.

"I won't fail you." He exclaimed as the man in the black suit climbed back into his now damaged car with his guards and drove out of the alley darkened by the shadow of the massive abandoned factories on either side of it.

---

Robin stared at his open hand, holding it up close to his face as he very intently examined the key he'd recovered from the robbery attempt.

It wasn't like any key he'd ever seen. It had two prongs, like a tuning fork, with each edge of the prongs intricately filed into different configurations of ridges and dips, highs and lows and channels. It was easily the most complicated key he'd ever seen before. But for having so many small pieces, it was somewhat long and quite a bit heavier than it seemed it would be; it also seemed to be very tough as he tried to bend it and met with no success.

He also had no idea what it was for.

'What is it for' he thought 'Why would a regular run-of-the-mill bank robber have a key like this…what on Earth does it unlock?'

**5:09**

A brunette woman in a short blue dress and high heels opened the door to the police station. She walked past the man at the front desk without question. Her sultry stride moved her efficiently down the hallways of the station, as many officers looked at her, but did not seem to note her presence as anything out of the ordinary.

She made her way to the stairs, descended to the basement floor, and exiting the stairwell door with a sign next to it reading 'Holding Cells'. He high heels clicking on the tiled floor as she approached the locked steel door sealing off that wing of the station. The officer assigned to the desk there stood up at attention.

The woman politely asked him to open door for her and he immediately obeyed her as if commanded, unlocking it with one of the many keys on a large ring attached to his belt. She casually walked in as he shut the door behind her; stopping in front of a holding cell containing four ragged looking men.

She knocked on the steel door and the officer quickly jumped up to unlock it and she walked past him as he held it open. She ascended the stairs, and made her way into the evidence room, walking right past the officer manning it. She looked up and down the shelves for a moment before finding the box she wanted. She pulled it off the shelf, threw off the top and began rifling through its contents. The woman found a small plastic bag containing a gold ring and slipped it into her handbag, she kept searching for another minuet, but failed to find whatever else she was searching for and replaced the box then quickly exited the station.

"How in the hell did this happen!" Screamed an angrily shocked police lieutenant as he observed the gruesome scene before him.

"Good god, what a mess." One officer commented.

"Smith, how did you let _this_ one slip by?" The lieutenant said, waving to the cell where the four bank robbers were being held, the cell that was now in gory disarray, with blood spattered liberally across the walls and floor and several mutilated body parts lying much further from their former owners than usual.

"I didn't see anyone except the Captain, sir." He managed to stammer out under the pressure of the overbearing lieutenant.

"Well that's odd, seeing as Captain Grimes is on vacation _in Hawaii_!" The lieutenant yelled.

"I don't know how it happened sir."

"Ramirez says she saw a woman in a blue dress walking through the station, but since no one else seemed to care, she thought the lady was supposed to be here." Another officer added.

"Damnit. Nobody walks into my damn station and makes it into the scene of quadruple homicide. Get all the damn security tapes and bring them to my office, I'm dealing with this one personally.

**5:15**

"The problem has been taken care of sir." Asher said into his cell phone.

"Good. And my property?" The voice of the man in the black suit responded.

"The ring was recovered sir. However, no key was found. It was not in the evidence box." He tentatively answered. A loud string of curses flowed from the receiver, most of them aimed at him, followed by a few moments of silence.

"**Are you sure**, Asher?" The man asked forcefully through obviously gritted teeth.

"Yes, Mr. Thanatos. I sent in my best agent, she did not find the key. But I do have a lead on it. I've gotten the security tapes from the bank from my man on the inside, I've reviewed them, and it seems that Robin of the Teen Titans stumbled upon the key when it was on the floor, and now has it in his possession."

"Do you think he knows anything of its value?" Thanatos asked, a twinge of concern slipped into his voice.

"No sir. Do you want me to take care of it?"

"No, I have people for just this kind of work. I will send my team to recover the key. Standby for your orders."

"I Understand, Sir." Asher responded and a click was heard from the other end of the line.

---

Beast Boy and Cyborg were in the kitchen, shoving each other back and forth, trying to gain the upper hand so one of them could make their preferred meal while Starfire sat at the kitchen table, squirting mustard into her gaping mouth. As usual, Beast Boy couldn't match the size or strength of his friend and Cyborg had an easy time of hold his green buddy at bay.

Raven sat in a large, comfortable looking armchair near the window where she had turned on the heavy tint on all them allowing the artificial lights to pick up any lost light, a thick old leather-bound book—more of a tome really—in front of her, open somewhere near the middle. Robin walked into the large kitchen-living room, key still in hand, mind still lost in thought. He stood there for a moment, he felt he need to take in what he saw, his friends all going about their business, the same things that happened every day.

He shook his head; he walked over to where Raven was sitting, so engrossed in her book, she completely missed his first question.

"Raven…hello, Raven, you there?" He asked, finally waving his hand in front of her hood where he face lay in partial shadow. She snapped out of her intense reading and pulled down her hood, looking up at him next to her.

"Oh, yeah, sorry Robin…good book." She laughed lightly, closing the massive work and setting on the table with a heavy thud, causing the table's legs to creak and moan under the pressure.

Robin glanced at the cover where the title read in large Old English style letters 'The rise and fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur' he shuddered. "Uh yeah, I can imagine…I have something to show you." Raven sat up slightly as he said this "I found this," he said, holding out the key for her to take "fallen out of the pocket of one of the bank robbers."

"This is the strangest key I've ever seen, but it reminds me of something…" she trailed off, as both of them stared at the key dangling in the air before them. Then she broke the few moments of silence "Do you know what it opens?"

"No," he laughed "I was hoping you could tell me. It looks fairly old, and it's markings and designs aren't like anything I've seen before; I thought it was something you might know about, you are kind of our resident expert." He said, bearly containg a laugh as he pointed at the huge book on the table.

"I don't know, it seems familiar," she said, ignoring his remark "I know I've seen something like it before, but I can't say where. There must be something in one of my books, let's go back to my room and check my library for it." She continued, never taking her eyes off the key she held in front of herself. Raven rose from her window side seat and they both walked through the living room to the hallway. When they got to her room, she typed a code into the pannel next to the door and it slid open, Robin followed her into the dark room, the door quietly hissing shut behind him.

Black sheets and curtains on the bed and window, dark purple paint on the walls with navyblue bookcases brimming with banned novles, aicent accounts, timeless books, scrolls and parchments and just about every other immagineable type of written information.

The only thing Robin saw in contrast to the overall dark theme was the bathroom, the door was slightly ajar, allowing out a bit of light from the large white tiled room. Raven scanned over the shelves of her bookcases, finally she located the book she was looking for and pulled it down from the top shelf. She opened it and set it on her bed, she began to read but then realized Robin was still standing at the door, taking in the other Titan's room, she cleared her throat, and when he looked at her, she motioned for him to come over and sit down.

She held up the key once more for both of them to look at. She began flipping through the well worn pages of the book, past beautiful illistrations of equally horrible things, she kept flipping though the pages one after the other when Robin suddenly shot out his hand and stopped her.

"Oh god, now I know why I've seen it before…"

A loud explosion could be heard and the whole tower seemed to shake for a moment. Both Robin and Raven spang to their feet, they could hear Starbolts being shot off and blasts from Cybor's sonic cannon. It occurred to Robin that he should take the key, so he snatched it off the bed and placed the light chain around his neck, tucking it into his costume. They wasted no time rushing to the door and then racing down the hallway.

Smoke was pouring into the corridor, eclipsing the main room at its end. A stray starbolt tore through the smoke and past their heads as the rushed forward into the haze. As soon as they burst through the smoke, it was instantly clearer; Robin kicked aside the small, cylindrical grenade it was all bellowing out of as he and Raven quickly assessed the situation.

Five men had entered their living room through the elevator shaft leaving the twisted and smoldering chunks of doors and cars strewn about.

They were obviously not there to make friends as Raven saw Cyborg locked in hand to hand combat with one, while Starfire was struggling with one on each arm as they fought her alien strength, and Beast Boy, transformed into a grizzly bear, up on his hind legs trying to swipe at his black-clad attackers as they moved around him nearly dancing as they struck at him.

Without a word the two remaining Titans jumped into the fray. Robin dove into Starfire's battle with the two warriors. They looked almost like ninja to him, dressed in black with their faces covered. But at this point he didn't care as he sailed through the air with his right leg extended. Connecting it with an attacker's left side, sending him crashing to the ground.

Starfire looked at him and wordlessly expressed her thanks as she brought her now free and starbolt charged hand to the face of her other foe. The bolt exploded in his face and added to the Titan's already formidable power, sending him slamming into the nearby wall and leaving quite a dent.

Robin squared off against the first man as he rose from the ground. Robin was concerned that his opponent seemed unfazed by his first attack, but as the man took a fighting stance, he forgot it and quickly followed suit. He charged forward, attacking the man with all his strength. They traded punches, following attacks with blocks and then counter blocks and counter attacks.

'He's not even trying. Damnit!' Robin thought as they battled 'maybe _this_ will get his attention!" His mind raced as he took a step and threw all his momentum and power in kick to the side of the man's head. As his leg flew through the air at tremendous speed, he felt a horrible pain in his thigh when his wound from earlier reopened and blood began flowing out, but he kept going and it stuck home without being blocked; Robin thought that was it, but when he realized as his kick ended that even though his steel-soled boot had hit dead on, his enemy was still just standing there, completely unharmed.

The Boy Wonder's shock only lasted a fraction of a second because his opponent wasted no time in using Robin's opening to his advantage, punching him in the stomach, totally knocking his breath out and then kicking him, flinging him sprawling to the floor several feet away.

He lay on the ground, unable to move, watching, as Cyborg traded blows with the man he was fighting, and looked like he was losing. His opponent picked up his nose, as if he smelled something, and began slowly walking towards the prostrate hero.

The man Starfire had hit was picking himself up off the ground, while Beast Boy—as a bear—was grappling hand to 'hand' with his remaining foe. The blood was already leaking through his costume and pooling on the ground around his leg.

He watched as Raven telekinetically threw any object that wasn't nailed down at one of them, but he kept coming, breaking through each and every thing thrown at him. The man had reached Robin, and was starting to bend down, as he reached behind his head and started to undo the mask that concealed much of his face.

Robin looked up into his eyes as was stared back at by icy, deep blue eyes, as lifeless and cold as the ocean depths. But before he could move in any further, Raven, now against the back wall, encased a ceramic paperweight in black energy and sent it rocketing towards her enemy; he casually swung his arm, brushing it aside, and flying right into the center of a window, completely shattering it, causing the system tinting the windows to short out and flooding the room with afternoon sunlight.

All the men turned from their battles and sprinted away as fast as they could manage back towards the elevator, in less than a second they had all disappeared back into the darkness and it was all over.

**5:27**

The room was completely silent except for the gentle whisper of the wind from the now very open window. The Titans all stood still, in shock from what had just transpired.

"Uh…guys, does anyone know what the hell just happened?" Beast Boy was the first to break the silence as he stared confoundedly at the torn elevator doors.

Smoke still hung dully in the air, floating near motionless, the wind from the open window gently blowing in.

"I'm not too sure myself." Cyborg said as he turned towards the rest of them noticing Robin on the floor, he called to the other Titans and ran over to him.

"Raven, you mind redoing this?" Robin asked through clenched teeth.

"I said this could happen…" she responded, a slight hint of her displeasure at not being heeded slipping into her voice as she healed the wound yet again. "This time, you'll actually have to rest and let it recover."

"I didn't exactly have time for that today did I?" He replied, standing up and dusting himself off.

The Titans stared at each other as they stood in a circle for a moment before they all began surveying the damage to their home.

"So who the hell were those people?" Robin asked himself, but still loud enough for the others to hear.

"Perhaps, Robin, if we viewed the footage from our many security cameras we could gain some insight." Starfire offered as she righted a fallen chair.

"Yeah, you're right." Robin walked over towards the elevator shaft "Cyborg, see if the computer is still working and then pull up all the security camera footage of the fight and when they entered and fled." He looked down the seemingly endless black pit.

"There's no lights, the cords have all been cut,…" he mumbled to himself "how the hell did they get up and down here?"

"K, I got it all up and working." Cyborg called. The other four Titans quickly gathered around the lager computer console and watched as their metal companion went through all the cameras and angles.

"God these guys are fast." Raven said, as the five assailants nearly flew out from the destroyed elevator doors and began the battle.

"And we know how strong they are." Beast Boy added, rubbing his arm.

"They came up through the sewers…" Cyborg pointed to the screen, an image from their lone camera down there played across the screen. "Then, they busted through the _welded shut 200 pound_ man-hole cover and into the basement." He paused a few seconds as he changed the view on the screen to another set of cameras. "They loaded the elevator with a bomb, and rode the cables behind it up. It blew open the door and they rushed in. The explosion damaged the circuitry…" he pulled up a schematic of the elevator shaft and then of a series of wires which were flashing red "…on the lower level lines running down the shaft, all the cameras below this floor were knocked out."

"So we don't know how they managed to get down an eight story drop in a matter of seconds without smashing into the concrete floor?" Robin asked.

"Perhaps they did simply, jump down." Starfire offered.

"Come on Starfire, no one could fall that far and get away without a scratch." Beast Boy interjected.

"But we still haven't answered 'why'." Robin stated flatly.

"Who knows, man? Last time I checked, we've got a lot of enemies, anyone of them could have hired some experts to come and get rid of us." Cyborg responded grimly, turning his chair toward him.

"Yeah they're tired of gettin' their butts kicked all the time." Beast Boy said looking for a high-five from Cyborg but finding only air.

"Robin, I think I know why they attacked us." Raven spoke up, coming out of her absorbed thought process, and taking a step closer to the rest of the team.

**5:40**

"We were unable to recover the key lord, a window—" The five men knelt before Thanatos, their heads lowered.

"_I don't want excuses_! What I **want**…is results." He finished coldly. "Kain, assemble the rest of your men." The man in the middle of the five raised his head to look at him "I will contact Asher and let him know he and his men can help us. You must recover that key before then end of the night. I _need_ it, tonight."

"Understood, my lord." Kain replied, all five men rose in unison and left the room. They walked a few feet down a large hallway, ubiquitous with the trappings of wealth; they entered a large room brimming with every kind of weapon imaginable. The walls lined with swords and axes, pistols and shotguns, machineguns, assault rifles, grenade launchers and even a harpoon gun.

"We will not fail Mr. Thanatos again. Call in the other men; next time…" Kain pulled a sheathed sword from its place on the wall and slid it quickly through his belt "we go armed."

A/N: I had no idea that the first chapter would turn out so long when I started writing it. However, I think it came out quite well. Not sure how long succeeding chapters will be, but somewhere in this ballpark most likely. Hope you liked it, and if you didn't, feel free to tell me why.


	2. Run Into the Fray

A/N: Seems not a lot of people read it, but enough did to review, and I thank you for that, makes writing the next chapter a little bit easier. And I'll defiantly try my best to have the next chapter up faster than this, over a month is unacceptable to me.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

**5:31**

"Lieutenant Keys…" a uniformed officer opened the door to his office and began walking in.

"Not now, later." The lieutenant Keys angrily cut the man off as he stared intently at a computer screen. The man quickly retreated back through the door, leaving Keys once again alone with his surveillance footage.

He watched on the screen as a brunette woman in a blue dress walked through his station, straight on through all the restricted areas, with plenty of other officers seeing her, but not seeing that anything was out of place. He watched as she reached the prisoner holding area, and was let right in 'god I need to reassign Smith' he thought as Smith was on the screen, holding the door open for the woman.

He saw her walk right up to the bars on the cell where the men had been held, then she turned aimed a small, pen-shaped device at the camera and the picture went out, the lieutenant put the tape on fast forward, and for only about one minute worth of tape there was static before it came back on, and he could just see her walking out of the frame, and the horrible mangled bodies of the criminals filling the cell. He rewound it and watched again, then again, and he finally watched her as she walked right out of his police station without anyone else so much as batting an eye.

He walked over to his office door and poked his head out. "Caren" he called to his secretary seated at her desk a few feet from the door "get me the statements on that bank robbery from earlier today. I've got one of those feelings about this one."

**13 Hours Earlier**

A hooded and robed man laid a candle on the floor, at the top of intricately designed pentagram within an impressive and otherworldly crest. He lit the candle like the others and stepped out of off of the elaborate floor pattern.

"The preparations are complete my lord." The robed man bowed as he spoke.

"Watch closely, Asher. You're witness to the first step to a new era in world history." Thanatos held his hands behind his back, turning his head slight toward his pale subordinate.

"Yes sir."

"Kain, bring forward the final element of the process."

Kain and another guard brought forward a blindfolded older man, his hands chained. The shackles on his feet clinking against the floor as they half dragged, half walked, him across the floor, stopping in the cent of the design on the floor.

"Once this process is started, it cannot be stopped. Do you understand, Asher? Our window is limited." Thanatos bluntly told the man to his left.

"I do, Mr. Thanatos. My men are ready, I assure you."

"_They had better be_." He replied coldly.

"What the hell's going on here?!" The man in the center of the room demanded as his blindfold was taken off, his gaze settling on the men in front of him, his focus on the larger of the two. "I'm a very power police officer, I suggest you reconsider whatever it is you have planned." He continued, raising his shacked hands and pointing at the black-suited man.

"Kain, finish the procedure." He said, ignoring the man.

Kain pulled a large hunting knife from his belt and threw his arm outward across the old man's neck. Blood sprayed across the room, covering his arm as the man lurched backwards and collapsed to the ground, writhing for a few moments before death stilled him.

The two men stepped out of the circle as red light began to pour from with chalk lines, emblazoning the symbols like fire on the concrete floor.

Thanatos and the robed man both began to chant something in a language Asher had never heard before. It sounded not just foreign, but terrible to his ears, as word after word sent chills down his spine. He began to slowly back away from his employer, raising his arms in an attempt to shield himself from whatever it was he was feeling.

The glow from emblem grew brighter and more powerful, quickly filling the room with red, fire-like light. Suddenly, it seemed the crest could no longer contain the energy, and two beams shot out, each encompassing the speakers. For a moment, Asher thought he saw Thanatos change, morph into something indescribable, but just as soon as it happened it was gone, the energy burst off of the two men and instantly dissipated; leaving the room and the circle dark as the smoke rose off the candles, save for the single light bulb overhead, illuminating the charred and blackened corpse of the robed man.

"The process is complete." Thanatos said from the darkness, he stepped from the shadow into Asher's view, silhouetted against the light. "Go and retrieve the key Asher, I will need it when I find the gateway."

"Yes sir." Asher turned, his eyes adjusted to the darkness enough to find the door, and left.

**6:18pm**

"Hold on, wait a second, _they're vampires?!_" Cyborg stared in dismay at his purple haired friend. The other Titans gathered around Raven, all of them standing amidst the destruction of their living room from the fight.

"Well…essentially….yes." Her frank response did nothing to alleviate the shocked expressions of the other four Titans.

"So, vampires…are real?" Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head; obviously trying to take in everything Raven had just told them. Vampires had broken into the Tower, and had attacked them to retrieve the key Robin had found at the bank robbery, which means the real objective of the robbery was actually that strange looking key Robin had in his hand right now.

"I'm half demon, Starfire is an Alien, Cyborg is…well, a Cyborg…" She looked him in the eyes, seeing he still was having a hard time believing her "**You're green for gods' sake!**" She shook her head and continued, "There are different types of demons, and very few could work well outside of their dimension, so vampires are usually employed for the task."

Starfire seemed lost in thought; she was considering the facts Raven had told them, the ones she'd uncovered when she and Robin searched for information about the key. Demons like the ones they fought before, vampires, a key that could open a door to another dimension, to the dimension of her father's world; a key that opened the gates to hell. The very thought of it sent a chill down her spine.

"Like Raven said," Robin broke the momentary silence "we don't know who is trying to get this key. But we can be damn sure, that no good will come from them getting a hold of it."

"What are the odd it's one of Trigon's old buddies out lookin' to take his place, Raven? Tryin' to do the same thing he did?" Cyborg asked, crossing his arms.

"Trigon didn't have 'buddies' but there were and still are some very powerful demons in that dimension. When we destroyed him, they would have all come out of the woodwork. _Here_." The massive book her and Robin had been looking at a few minutes before floated into her hands before she dropped it onto the table in front of them, sending a rumble from its impact through their feet and opening it to the page they had been on before.

"Raven, right here it says that the ritual also activates the key, as soon as the gate itself is revealed, the key becomes active and can be used to open it, it was to make sure that no one could open the portal accidentally, or at least without knowing the ritual, and what they were getting into. And once the gateway appears, there are only 24 hours before it disappears, and after that, the ritual to make it appear and to activate the key can't be used for another thousand years."

"Uh, Robin" Cyborg looked slowly back from the indecipherable squiggles he saw on the ancient paper to the Boy Wonder, blinking noticeably "when did you learn to read…I don't even know what language that's in…"

"It's ancient Greek" Raven answered for him "but they translated it from an even older Sumerian writing, because they were the last people to ever encounter the few remaining demons before they were all expelled from our dimension."

"I dabble." Robin responded with a rye smile. "They've obviously established the connection to the other realm. They may already know where the gate is, but they don't have the key, and we can't let them get it."

"We have to find the door. And find a way to get rid of the key." Raven added.

"Hey…why don't we just…break it in half or something?" Beast Boy slowly said in so low a tone, he seemed to be trying to remain unheard.

Cyborg grabbed the key up from the table where Robin had set it "Good idea man." And he held it between both hands and tried to snap it in two. After giving it all his strength he found the key undamaged and tried another time before his shoulders slumped and he tossed it back onto the table, sending the resounding clang of metal on glass throughout the room.

"It's a key to the underworld, forged by Trigon, the most evil and powerful demon ever to exist. We can't just break it off in the lock." Raven glared at Beast Boy, and he cowered visibly under her gaze.

Robin turned away as the four other Titans continued to discuss their options, and what would happen if those guys who attacked them got the key. He took a step forward, then turned on his heel, facing his friends.

"Maybe we can't break it. But who's to say we have to?" The rest of the Titans looked at him questioningly; puzzled expressions on their faces. "We keep it away from the door, we keep it away from those vampires that attacked us. We keep it away from _anyone_ who might want to open that door, and defend it. All we have to do is guard it for one night. How hard can that be?"

"How are we going to do that?" Raven asked as she looked at him skeptically.

"We can just make our stand right here, where better than our own turf?" Cyborg cut Robin off before he could respond.

"Great plan guys…only one problem."

"And what problem is that BB" Cyborg turned to his green companion who was standing at the computer console.

"The sun is down." He offered, never taking his eyes away from the computer monitor as it showed multiple pictures of men dressed exactly like the ones who attacked the Tower rampaging through downtown destroying everything and shooting everyone they came across.

"There must be at least 20 of them." Cyborg said almost to himself.

"30…30 superhuman vampires all armed to the teeth." Raven added.

"Jesus…come on guys, gear up we gotta go stop them." Robin said, turning quickly from the screen towards the door.

"But we know it is a trap." Starfire pleaded.

"Of course it is, but we have to try and stop them." Robin said after turning towards his team, they all stood looking at him from the computer station, all staring for a moment before they all snapped out and stared moving towards the stairs. "I've got the key." He called to them as they stared descending after he ran back to the table to grab it. "It's not like we can leave it here."

Robin arrived at the garage and ran up next to Cyborg, who was standing like a stone just past the doorframe. Robin was puzzled at first as to why he was just standing there, but as he caught sight of what had happened, a look of horror crept across his face.

"They…killed my car." Cyborg seemed on the verge of tears as he looked at what used to be his beloved T-Car, now sliced into several pieces, tires slashed to shreds and engine completely torn out through the hood and sitting on the concrete next to it.

"The bastards destroyed my bike too." Robin whispered as he looked upon his similarly wrecked R-Cycle.

"Guys what's takin' so long—oh…that kinda sucks." Beast Boy walked in through the garage front. "Guess we need to find a different way to get downtown." He turned around and called to Raven.

"Raven, it'll be quicker if you just teleport us directly downtown." Robin said having only taken a moment to observe his loss.

"Right, everyone over here" She motioned for the other Titans to get closer.

"Cyborg, mourn your car later. It's time to go to work." Cyborg instantly snapped out of his disarray at Robin's words and joined the other teens.

"Ok, ready. We're going on in 3, 2, 1."

**6:23pm**

"Well that just doesn't make any sense," Lieutenant Keys said to himself as he watched the tape of the woman entering his police station, and killing the robbery suspects then walking out without anyone stopping her, for at least the 30th time "I just don't get it."

A young uniformed officer opened the door to Keys' office, Keys immediately noticed he looked hurried as was sweating quite a bit.

"Lieutenant, sir. We—we just started getting a rash of reports, armed terrorists in black camo are all over downtown, maiming and killing anyone they find."

"What!?" The lieutenant cried as he leapt up from his desk. He quickly walked over to the officer and motioned for him to come with him as he walked across the station. "Don't we have any units in the area?" He asked his dispatch sergeant.

"We had four squad cars in the immediate area, but after the first few reports came back to us, we sent them to check each out and they haven't reported in since."

The lieutenant looked up from the seated officer and watched for a moment as his precinct was abuzz with activity, officers frantically scurrying around, putting on body armor, loading their weapons and getting ready.

"I want every officer on duty and off to get suited up and get ready to head into the fray. Put it on the general channel so every precinct will get it, I have a feeling we're going to need some help."

"Yes sir." The dispatch sergeant responded as she relayed his orders through the radio.

**6:29pm**

"**Titans, GO**!" Robin cried as the shroud of black energy disappeared around them and they found themselves right in the midst of a war zone.

"Thank god it was after rush hour, or so many more people would have been here." Robin said to himself as he saw the body of a man lying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood.

Bullets flew all around the Titans as they worked their way through the debris to fight attackers one by one.

Two turned to face Raven, leveling their assault rifles at her, only to have a car dropped on them before they could squeeze off a shot. She uprooted a lamp post from the street corner and sent it hurtling into a group of men as they were about to attack Beast Boy.

Robin charged a trio of the vampires as they were all reloading their weapons. He kicked a rifle from the hands of one as he swept the same kick across the heads of the other two, knocking them both back while he fought the third.

He sidestepped a lunge by the man who had drawn a large knife, Robin grabbed his wrist and threw his palm forward into the vampire's elbow, snapping in the wrong direction. The other two grabbed him from behind on either side as the third man went down; Robin quickly dropped to his knees and rolled forward, landing both men's heads on the pavement, knocking them out while escaping their grasp.

"They're getting back up!" Cyborg cried in dismay as he watched two vampires he had blasted with his sonic cannon stand up again.

"We can't fight them forever. It was hard enough fighting one each, especially when they don't _stay down_!" Beast Boy yelled as he broke a cinderblock over the head of an opponent.

Starfire kept throwing starbolt after starbolt at a small group she was engaged in battling, but every time she scored a hit, the man she stuck would be back on his feet within a few seconds. She resorted to hand to hand combat and began to desperately fight all at once, managing at least to send them sprawling with her powerful blows.

The Titans only managed to avoid the gunfire while they were spread out, fighting the men individually. But now they were being driven closer and closer, and had a quickly encroaching space in which to maneuver.

A bullet grazed Raven's arm, slicing open a hole in her sleeve and ripping through her cloak behind. She gave a slight cry as her other arm went to the wound as it began to bleed.

"**HOLD**!" cried a voice from somewhere in the encompassing men. All the gunfire immediately ceased. The vampires now formed a tight circle around the Titans with no more than ten feet between them. The Titans were back to back, all facing a different set of foes.

"We won't be needing the guns any more, we can't have the key damaged now, can we?" Kain emerged from the circle, standing just outside the ring in front of Robin; a humorless smile on his lips accompanying his imposing presence.

His men all set down their weapons in near perfect concurrence.

Robin looked around the circle, scanning the men and assessing their situation: they were all battered, hurt and tired from fighting, Raven was still bleeding slightly from her arm, Starfire had probably broken a few bones in her right hand from hitting the vampires so hard, and Cyborg was getting low on power. The Titans were all breathing heavily, but kept their guards up and stayed in fighting stance back to back. Robin took one last glance at his team before settling his gaze back on Kain.

"Oh you're surrendering then?" He asked, grinning slyly.

"Ha-Ha, I think not, _boy_." Kain responded still smiling. "Now hand over the key, and I assure you that I'll let you and your friends go, unharmed."

"I have to say, that's a tempting offer…but, I've grown pretty fond of this key," he paused, pulling the key out from his shirt and holding it up from the chain around his neck "so I think I'd rather hang onto it." He finished, stuffing the key back down his uniform shirt.

"Give me the key!" Kain roared, his smile vanished.

"You want it? Come and take it."

* * *

A/N: Hope you liked it, I know, it's kind of pulp-y, but that seems the best way to tell the story to me. 


	3. The Race is On

A/N: Guess words I use aren't as common in the lexicon as I think. 'Pulpy' I guess really just refers to something that's not got a lot of depth to it, kind of a throw away, but entertaining for it's purpose. Anyway, it's been to long again, but moving is hectic process so it consumed much of my time and sometimes, as many of you know, sitting down and writing can be hard.

Disclaimer: The Teen Titans are amazing, I wish I owned them, if I did, it'd still be on the air. Damn it, I do not own Teen Titans.

**6:41****pm **

"Fine, have it your way" Kain straightened up, his expression more relaxed before he ordered in cold, hard voice "Kill them."

The Titans pressed backwards against one another as their muscles tensed, while the men encircling them rushed forward all at once.

Not waiting for their adversaries to strike, the Titans acted on their constant training for every possible scenario as they all plunged themselves into the attacking vampires with renewed ferocity. Robin used his staff to knock one to the ground as he poll-vaulted over him, landing both of his steel-soled boots squarely in the chest of another. As he recovered he spun to hurl several discs into the crowd of attacking denizens of the night, covering the area with both smoke and ice.

Starfire, directly opposite of Robin, created her own wave of destruction as she spread her starbolts and eye beams liberally among the throngs of enemies. She curled back a fist, reading it to deliver a powerful blow to one vampire she had by the scruff of the neck, just as one wrapped its arms around her shoulders from behind. She fell to her knees, escaping the vampire's grasp as she turned sharply around and rose to her feet with a crushing uppercut landing on his chin, sending him flying quite a few yards into the air and landing on several of his compatriots.

Beast Boy and Cyborg had taken to working in tandem on a large portion of the vampires. Each was playing of the others attacks as well as giving and receiving launches and boots when needed as Raven flew overhead, giving them effective air support and using her magically hurled projectiles to take out any the two missed.

**6:42****pm**

"Lieutenant! We're nearly there, only a few more blocks." The young, nervous looking officer driving the squad car yelled over the blaring sirens to lieutenant Keys.

"God, sir, there's a whole mob of those guys up ahead!" Said a seasoned officer with a gray moustache on his face and sergeant stripes on his arms.

"Gibbons, I hope you brought extra ammunition today." Keys said to him in a frank, plain voice as he stared ahead at the mess of bodies on the streets, the calamitous crowd now only a few hundred feet ahead. "Looks like the Titan's are already there" he observed. "Well, let's give 'em a hand."

**6:43****pm**

Kain stared at the battle as it quickly unfolded before his eyes with growing rage. The Titans seemed to have gotten the upper hand with their little counter attack and now his men were being pushed back. He decided to… become involved.

Robin spun his staff around in one hand, striking one man in the temple, knocking him out. He managed to lean backwards so that his back was parallel to the ground, just in time to keep a large serrated blade from ripping his neck open. He twisted himself to the left and bent back up only to have to spin away again as the blade came down at him vertically. He dropped back and gained a few seconds to get a better look at who he was actually fighting.

"I'm Robin, but I'm not sure I caught your name." Robin quipped.

"Give me that key!" Was the only response he received as a renewed wave of attacks with the large hunting knife spewed forth and he was forced to spin, doge and weave his way around them, only to end up once again a facing his opponent only a few paces in front of him.

"Only if you ask a little more nicely." Robin replied, breathing heavily, eliciting yet another set of attacks. He jumped back from a lunge, and twisted around to face a 90-degree angle to Kain's arm just in time as the vampire sprung forward again. Robin struck out at his adversary's wrist, knocking the knife from his hand. But only a moment later, Robin felt himself falling to the ground as his left leg was swept from under him by his disarmed foe.

Kain reached out as the Boy Wonder fell and snatched the key out of the air as it hung from the chain around Robin's neck.

Robin's eyes widened in astonishment as he fell backward; he watched the scene almost as if it was in slow-motion—the key came from out under his uniform, fluttering in the air as he slid towards the ground, Kain's hand darting out quickly and snatching it out of the air before Robin's own hand could close around it. Then he started hearing gunfire, coming from behind where he was, he used his myriad of martial-arts training to turn the momentum of his fall to his advantage and did a backward summersault on the blood-soaked pavement, but when he rose to his feet, Kain was already gone.

The other vampires Kain had brought with him were retreating. Those still engaged with the other Titans were quickly subdued now that they lacked support, and as 40 fully armed police officers charged onto the body strewn street, many in the front firing their weapons sporadically at the retreating foes until the last of them disappeared into dark alleys and boarded up buildings.

"I want those buildings searched immediately!" Ordered Lt. Keys, and small squads of heavily armed offices formed around the entrances of the dilapidated buildings, breaching them and beginning the search.

Robin looked around for a moment, and then let off a low grumble of frustration. The other Titans had gathered around him.

"He got the key, he took it, we lost," he told the Titans, the anger easily recognizable in his voice, his head dropping. The other Titans looked around at each other, and back at their leader.

"Robin, we can still stop them, we just have to get to the door before they do."

"Raven's right, man," Cyborg put his enormous metal hand on his friend's shoulder "we've only got to hold them off a few hours when we get there, and the portal will close for another millennium."

Robin looked up, looked into the eyes of each of his friends; he saw their love, and their trust, their complete and total trust that they would be able to do this, if he led them.

"Let's get back to the tower, we've got to get to the door before they do." The Titans all gathered closely around Raven, and she focused inward for a few seconds. Just as black energy began to envelope them, Robin turned toward the Lt. while he was still barking orders "Hey, we'll let you guys handle it from here." And with that, the blackness encompassed them and they vanished from the street.

Lt. Keys looked around, there were a dozen or more lifeless bodies littered about the street along with a great deal of destruction. He told his assistant to start having the men check the bodies for any signs of life, and stared at the grim scene for a few more moments before hearing the searches hadn't recovered anything, and went back to barking orders.

**8:56****pm**

Raven looked up to the ceiling, sighing deeply as she let the massive book in her arms slump down against her chest. She and the other four Titans had been pouring over her texts for over two hours, and it had yet to yield any new information, or even the slightest clue as to where the portal would end up, once activated.

The massive TV was turned on with the volume relatively low, the local news flowing in and out of each Titan's ear as they worked.

As she read over the original chant that activated the portal in her book again for what seemed like the thousandth time, she noticed something she'd missed up until now, the script was hard to read as it was, and that it was written nearly six thousand years ago certainly didn't help, but as she could tell, roughly translated, it came out to be 'And on who's lands that was sacrificed, shall the gateway to the Other Realm be discovered.'

Raven looked up, yelling, "I found it" and then jumped to her feet; the other Titans looked up, surprised by her sudden outburst. "Or well, I sort of found where it should be…"

---

"Now that we have the key, you can set about finding the location of the portal. Take the ring with you, and get to work, it will aid in your search for the man's home a great deal." Thanatos handed Kain the ring after taking it off his hand. "Contact me when you find it, and I will arrive shortly. Kill anyone who stands in your way."

"Understood my lord." Kain bowed his head, and with the ring in hand, left the room to begin the search of the city.

---

Raven told the other Titans about the line she had just read, and they began to search for any text relating to exactly what needed to be in the ritual for its success.

"Raven, it just says that it needs to be 'one of importance to the safety of the community'. That could be anyone."

"This just in, breaking news, the body of police captain Michael Grimes was discovered in the bay early this morning, we received the news just now after his extended family had been notified, only a few short hours after friends had reported him missing on the eve of his vacation. The city will mourn the loss of one of its most well known, hard-hitting law enforcement figures."

The Titans all looked up from the tome they had gathered around and stared at each other for a moment before they all jumped to their feet.

"Find his address in the police database." Robin ordered Cyborg as the metal Titan sat at the large computer consol.

"Guys, I don't think it's going to be in his house. These ancient rituals are very particular about where they take place." Raven broke in.

"So where do you think it would appear?" Robin asked, the other four Titans now paying close attention to Raven again.

"I would say our best bet is his office."

---

"Sir, a lot of the men have been here four or five hours past their shift-ends." A young, but confident looking sergeant had poked his head through Key's cracked-open door.

The lieutenant sighed and lifted his glasses halfway off his face, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"You're right. Tell all the men they can go home. They've had a rough day. Just keep about half the guys normally on the graveyard shift that we called in, they'd be about to start their shifts now anyway."

"Yes sir." The door closed behind the sergeant and Keys got up from his desk and walked to the other side of his small, cheaply furnished office. He reached for the coffee pot perched on top of a few short filing cabinets and poured himself a cup. He took a drink and grimaced; the coffee was at least six hours old, but he continued to drink it and sat back at his desk to continue writing his letter of condolence to the Captain's wife. He'd go into his office tomorrow and collect any personal affects for her, to save her the grief.

He sighed heavily again and leaned back in his chair. He still had virtually no idea what was going on, and the prisoners they had in their holding cells weren't saying a word, about anything, they hadn't requested phone calls, or lawyers, or even meals; they all just sat on the benches, staring straight ahead, barely even blinking.

He pulled the hanging blinds aside and glanced out the window; he could see officers leaving in droves, their dark uniforms melting into the darkness as they made their way towards their cars or the Eleventh Street subway, only a block from here. He ran a calloused hand through his short, dark hair and leaned back up to continue his work.

How do you write a letter about the tragic murder of a man you respected immensely, but scarcely knew; of a man you had never even showed the picture of your kids stowed in the folds of your wallet, and him the same; of a man you talked to less than 36 hours before starting this letter but was now gone? He rubbed the back of his neck and took another sip of the brackish coffee. He figured he'd just have to try.

**9:19**

"Everything is set, my lord. We have the key and are outside the location of the gate, awaiting your orders." Kain's voice crackled over the radio.

"It's a pity most of your force was put out of action in the fight to get the key. We could have used them. Alas, their skills are lost to us; Asher," Thanatos called, and the voice of the thin, pale man sounded from the seat in the limo next to him.

"Yes, sir?"

"Your own men will have to do. Get them into position around Kain and instruct them to follow his orders."

"But sir, I…"

"**Do it, Asher,**" Thanatos cut him off angrily "**before I lose what little patience with you I have left.**"

"Yes sir." Asher picked up his own radio and spoke a few short, quick commands into it, receiving similar replies. "They're on their way sir, they'll be there inside of five minutes."

"Good. Despite our other set-backs, it seems as if now everything is falling into place." A cold, humorless half-smile crossed his lips.

**9:26**

"Has anyone found out what precinct he worked at?" Cyborg called as all five teens sat at computers, scouring over data. The following silence seemed to give him his answer and he returned his eyes to his own screen.

"Wait, wait hold on." Beast Boy leapt to his feet "I think I have it here!" He started to bob up and down excitedly as the other four gathered around him. "There, I'm sure that's it. It's gotta be!" he had started to gesture wildly at the screen.

Cyborg peered in close "Yeah, yeah you found it Beast Boy…good job." He shuddered visibly "Never thought I'd say that…"

"So it's the seventh precinct? Those other guys are probably already there. Let's get over there fast."

---

"Just a bunch of punks and thugs with guns." Kain muttered to his two remaining men in the car with him. They nodded their heads in silent agreement, their now uncovered faces held stonily without expression.

"Kain…" Thanatos' voice crackled over the walkie-talkie at his side.

"Yes, lord?" He responded almost instantly, bringing the radio up to his face; the two men in the passenger and back seats now seemingly even more rigid than before.

"Enter and secure the premises. I will be arriving there within the hour." The radio clicked into dead silence. Kain opened his car door and stepped out into the dark night. The other two men followed him, and up and down the street from where they were parked, half a dozen other cars all emptied of their occupants.

Kain raised a hand and the street briefly flooded with the sound of dozens of weapons being loaded and cocked. He drew his own pistol and pulled the slide back. He raised the same hand again and then brought it down to indicated advancement. He and his two men started walking forward down the otherwise deserted street, and the two-dozen or so men fell in-line behind them; all marching towards their destination, straight ahead of them on the quiet road, its only sounds their hustled footfalls.

Kain quickened his pace and all the men with him followed suit. They were only a few dozen yards from the front door of their target. Kain broke into a run and at full tilt, ran headlong into the large, right-side, wooden front door of precinct seven, his other two men the left, knocking both doors off their hinges, sending them crashing to the floor.

The few, beleaguered looking officers in the main entrance barely had enough time to turn around and face the door before being gunned down by the invading force. Another two men came running at the sounds, hands on their guns, but were shot before they could even draw them, sending both men flying back along the hallway. The minimal resistance due to the lieutenants orders to send nearly everyone home left the precinct with only a handful of officers inside it.

---

Keys snatched up the letter off his desk and crushed the paper into a ball, and trying to toss it into the wastepaper basket next to his door, only to have it bounce off the rim. He let off a sigh and made to get up and retrieve it when a loud crash reverberated through his thin office walls. He yanked open his desk drawer and pulled out his two weapons, stuffing the tiny .38 into one holster, and clutching his .40 caliber Beretta in one hand while he worked his arms quickly into his shoulder harness.

He stood up and leaned over to the window, lightly pulling back a portion of the blinds. His mouth fell open as he watched at least two-dozen armed men running up the steps to the door and inside his precinct. Rage overtook his senses and he smashed open the window with the but of his gun, then taking aim at the last few stragglers of the group and unloading his fifteen round magazine at them.

He dropped the empty clip to the floor as he watched four men drop on the steps. He reloaded with a magazine from his desk and rushed to his office door. He threw himself to the left side as he saw shadows move through the frosted glass and more gunshots ring out from beyond the threshold.

'They're just hunting whoever's still here!' His mind raced with the adrenalin and rage. A quick burst of gunfire close by as the bullets passed through the tempered glass and door, striking his coffee mug and making it explode on his desk, coffee flying everywhere.

The door was kicked in, slamming against the table Keys was now crouched under, weapon ready. Two men burst inside, scanning the three walls of the room, one turned to leave but never took another step as a bullet ripped through his knee, sending him toppling into his companion, both of them being dragged to the floor as Keys shot two more times, finishing both of them. He sprang up from his concealment and bent low over the bodings turning them over, and wrapping his hand around the MP-5 one had been carrying. He stood back up but felt the familiar feeling of the barrel of a gun against his head.

He froze, glued to the spot. He heard the hammer being pulled back.

* * *

A/N: I wrote this and the ending all in one go, and I'll post it tomorrow. 


	4. Out of the Frying Pan

A/N: This is the last chapter, I wrote the last two at once after a too-long hiatus. Anyway, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

**9:45 **

"We're about a minute out now, Robin" Cyborg called into the comlink in the T-Car. The other three Titans passengers as Cyborg sped down the busy city streets before turning onto an almost totally abandoned side street, save for a half a dozen cars, all with their doors hanging open.

"Copy that. I can see the precinct now." The was a short pause, Cyborg was about to ask how Robin wanted to tell the police in the station that there was going to be a portal to a dimension full of demons opening in one of their offices, when Robin cut back in "Jesus, what the hell's going on?"

Cyborg was curious what Robin was talking about, but then he and the other Titans saw it too, as they approached the police station, they could clearly see bodies on the ground in front of it and the doors blow off their hinges, and what looked like more bodies lying inside.

"Change of plans." Robin had stopped his R-Cycle in a dark area before the precinct where one of the streetlights was out. The T-Car had pulled up next to him and the other four Titans hurried out. "Cy, BB, Star, go in the front. Raven, go in from the roof. I'll head in through a window." The Titans didn't need to give Robin verbal confirmation his orders would be carried out. They always trusted their leader in situations like this, and he had never steered them wrong yet.

"And nobody get shot!" He called before they all disappeared from each other's sight.

---

Lieutenant Keys felt a bead of sweat drip down his neck as the hammer clicked back. He'd been reckless and stupid, not closing the door or checking for enemies before running out, and now he was going to pay for it. But at least he had taken some of the bastards with him. Hell, he may as well try and get this one as well.

He snapped his head to the side, while turning instantly on his heel and bringing his elbow up to knock the gun out of the man's hand, or at least away. He heard a dull thud. Then he made contact and the gun easily went flying. He continued turning, fully expecting to start a grappling match with on of the invaders, but instead found the man crumpling to the ground, a red piece of metal lying on the floor near his head. He heard a faint noise and turned back to the window in time to see a red and green clad, masked teenager fly into the smashed window, taking the rest of it with him as he landed on Keys' desk.

"Thanks for the help."

"No problem. You ready to get back into the fight?"

"Let's get these bastards."

They both burst through the door, taking many of the men around them by surprise, as they had relaxed now that they thought the battle was over. Bullets and birdarangs flew in all directions. But Kain had been right, these men were nothing more than punks with guns; their poor accuracy only compounded their problems as they sprayed automatics wildly, hitting each other with their own crossfire.

After a few furious seconds of combat all the enemies were down, leaving Keys and the Boy Wonder to survey their damage. Eight men on the ground before them. A door to their right exploded, Keys raised his Beretta but had Robin's hand quickly placed on it and he lowered the firearm as a disheveled looking Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg came burst through, starbolts charged, sonic cannon armed, fangs bared. The two parties looked at each other for a moment, then the three Titans ran up to their leader.

"It's good to see you guys." Robin said.

"It was a bit of a tough fight, there were probably ten guys from that lobby to here."

"As you can see, me and the…" Robin gestured over and then looked back at Keys

"Lieutenant" Keys offered.

"Ran into a few of them ourselves. Did you see them coming in Lieutenant?"

"Yeah, looked to be between twenty-five to thirty of them. I got four outside, plus the three in there."

"Good, plus ours and all yours, there shouldn't be that many left, right?" Beast Boy said, having changed back into his usual form.

"Shit, no, we've got 15 of those guys from earlier down in lock-up, they've probably already let them out."

"Where are we now?" Robin asked, not wanting to think about having to fight another 15 of those vampires from before.

"Almost the center of the building."

"This is very important. Where is Captain Grimes' office?"

"Level Three Basement, He liked it down there for some reason. Bigger offices I guess." There was a loud crash followed by a small explosion. A man flew through an open door and smacked into a steel support column, then crumpled to the floor.

"That'll be Raven." Cyborg said, a bemused smile on his lips.

The five of them ran over to the open door, but scattered just as they reached it as a filing cabinet encased in dark energy came pelting through it. 

"Raven, it's un!" Robin called around the door as he hugged the wall.

"Oh, sorry. Heat of the moment." The other Titans and Keys walked cautiously through the door to find the purple-haired girl pulling her hood up, facing away from them.

"We need to—" Robin started.

"Get down to the basement, yeah. I read your thought, sorry. Let's not waste any more time talking.

They all walked over to the two elevators a few feet down the hallway.

"Lieutenant, I know this is as much your fight as ours, but what we really need is backup."

Keyes sighed, "I understand, I'm not sure I'd be much use anyway." He said, moving his hand from his side and revealing a dark red stain on his white shirt near his waist. "No. I'll be fine," he said as the Titans took a step towards him. "I'll make the call and get half the city's cops here in thirty minutes." He took a few steps back and sank into a chair.

"Lets go." Robin said, the other Titans boarded the elevator that had just opened, and Robin took one last look at Keys before stepping inside and letting the door slide shut.

---

The limousine pulled up right in front of the steps up to the precinct. The driver sprang out and nearly bounded over to the door to open it. Asher quickly stepped out, followed more slowly by Thanatos.

He surveyed the scene before him as he walked up the steps and into the entrance hall. It looked like Asher's men had encountered more resistance that he thought they would.

"My god, my men." Asher said, his pale face going impossibly one shade lighter.

"There are too few police here to have done all this. It happened after. It had to be the Titans."

"You think they're already here?"

"I know they are. Give me your radio." Asher unclipped it from his belt and handed it to the much larger man. "Kain. Hold your positions, stay out of sight, don't get in their way. I'm inside now."

"It will be done, my lord."

---

The Titans shifted uncomfortably in the cramped elevator. The soft muzak playing overhead giving an odd feeling to the situation as they rode down to what they could only assume would be a very life-threatening battle.

The elevator neared the final basement floor and the Titans readied themselves, expecting to have to spring out and into a fight. But the elevator dinged softly, and the door slid open, but nothing else happened. The dimly lit concrete hallway that stretched out before them was completely disserted.

"Looks like we got down here before they did." Beast Boy said, rubbing the back of his head as the Titans exited the cramped space into the wider hallway.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Robin said, almost absent-mindedly, stepping forward to gaze quizzically down the hall.

"Robin, something doesn't feel right about this. I felt it in the elevator too, there's a strong presence throughout the building now, and we seem to be closing in on it. Or it on us."

"It could very well be a trap." Starfire offered.

"But if it is, we've really only got one option…"Cyborg spoke, almost like he was thinking aloud.

"Spring the trap." Robin finished his thought for him. He motioned the other Titans forward and they started walking down the hallway, all warily looking at the doors they passed on either side of them, should they open to reveal an enemy.

"I'll give you even odds that we have to go down there." Cyborg pointed some fifty yards down to the end of the hallway, where a turquoise painted metal door stood, with a nameplate too far away to read affixed to the front.

They kept walking down the hall, picking up their pace as they went. When they finally reached the door, they all stood in front of it, unsure what to do; suddenly, Raven reached out her pale hand and turned the knob. The door clicked open and she slowly pushed it inward to reveal a pitch-black space.

Beast Boy let out a yelp "It opens into space!" He started to cower behind Cyborg, afraid of being sucked into the void, when Raven reached inside the doorframe and flicked on the light switch, bathing the large, concrete office in dim yellow light. "Oh" Beast Boy muttered as the other Titans chuckled.

Robin felt a little less apprehensive, and he and Raven made their way inside first, followed closely by the other Titans.

"Raven, any idea where the portal's supposed to be? I was kinda expecting, like, a the big wormhole from _Sliders_ or something." Cyborg asked while scanning the room for any obvious looking portals.

"Look at the floor." She said, as she herself stared fixedly at the smooth concrete beneath her feet. The other Titans all dropped their eyes and were greeted by the sight of a huge circle ringing almost the entire floor of the room, filled with complicated symbols and markings, a much smaller circle, no bigger than a saucer directly at it's center, as well as five concentric, larger circles, at each point of the star inside.

"How does it work, Raven." Starfire asked.

"I think, I think you need to place the key in the center here, but then something at the five points, that how it usually works, but for a spell like this, I would have to be…" She was cut off mid-thought.

"Very good," A deep, cold voice interrupted, "you know your magic well, but I would expect nothing less from Trigon's daughter." He laughed, but the icy, mirthless laughter raked against the Titan's ears, sending chills down their backs. They all turned, ready to fight, but were greeted by the leveled barrels of a dozen rifles, all lined up inside the large office, just in front of the door, where a tall, broad-shouldered man in a black suit stood.

Raven's eyes widened with shock at the invocation of her father's name "How do you know who my father was?"

"My dear girl, try and figure it out," he stepped through his armed men, now standing out in front of them. "It will be so much more _rewarding_, if you do."

"It fits, it explains why you want to open the portal so badly."

"Yes, yes, you're almost there."

"But it still leaves one question…are you an outcast, or an avatar?" The other Titans looked on as the exchanged continued, not knowing how to respond, but taking in all the new information.

"And there it is. Outcast, if you must know. Before I was thrown out for taking the wrong side in a civil war, I was called Mors, by the Romans, but I was always more partial the original name the Greeks gave me, Thanatos." 

"Death Personified." Robin said without thinking.

"Ah, the boy knows his mythological history as well."

"My powers are severely limited in this realm, and now that Trigon is gone, I doubt there is anyone left there powerful enough to stand against me, so I've decided to go back, and retake the throne that was rightfully mine to begin with. And when I'm done, I think I'll come back here and do the same thing, as much as I hate to admit it, I've grown to somewhat like this disgusting little planet. But enough about my plan. Bind them," he ordered, turning to Kain "Don't resist, I don't want to kill you yet, but I will without hesitation." His false smile beaming at the five Titans standing stock still under the sights of a dozen guns.

"It's alright for now guys, just play along for now." Robin whispered as five of the men came forward and took one Titan each. Kain came up to him, laying both hands on the considerably smaller boy's shoulders and forcing him roughly to his knees. He pulled his hands behind him and handcuffed his wrists together.

"Put them in position." Kain complied with the order and signaled the four other men to drag the bound Titans to each point of the star. "Cling to your last few minutes, Titan, don't make me cut them even shorter." Kain whispered to Robin as he twisted the chain between his cuffs, keeping a tight hold on him and causing quite a bit of pain as he picked the Boy Wonder back up to his feet, walked him over to the top point of the star and forced him back on his keens, facing inward.

Robin saw all the other Titans in similar positions, kneeling in the concentric circles, facing inward, with the man who had dragged each of them over standing behind them.

Suddenly, through the air ducts, the sound of sirens could be clearly heard.

"Damnit. Go and hold them, off, we only need a few minutes and then it won't matter how many men they brought." Thanatos motioned with his hand to the seven men remaining in the room, and they raced back out the door as he stepped aside to let them pass, as another three men waiting outside joined them. Robin just caught a glimpse as they headed into the two elevators before Thanatos stepped back in front of the door.

"Asher, would you please place the key in the center circle for me." Asher came through the door and squeezed past the larger man, who handed him the key as he passed. He walked out to the center of the larger circle, bent down to place the key, but there was a loud click and he froze a little over half way down. He was looking over his glasses up at the barrel of a gun, trained on him from about ten feet away.

"Mr. Thanatos, I don't understand."

"That was the point Asher. You see, the key isn't what activates the circle. I can do that with an incantation. What the circle really needs is a sixth sacrifice." Asher had stood fully upright again, but was quickly becoming even paler than before, his mouth agape, the key still clutched in his hand.

"But I will still need the key. So please, toss it over." He held out his empty hand but nothing came. Asher stood there dumbfounded, the key still at his side. "I can kill you know, you know, it would still work." he said, anger clearly in his voice as he raised the pistol a little higher. Asher grimly tossed the key in the air.

"But you promised me power." Asher stammered. He seemed to be stalling for time.

"Well you'll certainly get power here, but I do suppose it wasn't quite the power coursing through your veins you had imagined." He laughed the same, cold laugh form before.

"They what is the key for." Asher was unable to keep the raw fear from coating his voice.

"It allows me safe passage through the portal. It's to ensure only the truly worthy can travel between worlds. The fires of the tunnel between worlds will consume those who attempt to cross without it. So you see why I wanted it so badly. I've had enough, prepare yourselves and be proud, all of you are ushering in a new ear for humanity!" He began to chant in a mix of ancient Sumerian and old Greek, it was low at first, but he steadily grew louder and faster. His gun still trained on Asher, who stood stock still in the middle of the circle, fear washing across his face. The circle was glowing, the lines drawn on the concrete, formerly black, now glistened with red and orange light. The chant picked up louder and louder, faster and faster; it seemed to be reaching crescendo.

Then at once, Robin and Raven cried out "NOW!" Louder than the chanting and all the Titans, who had been surreptitiously working on their handcuffs while their guards were intently watching the exchange between Thanatos and Asher, all sprang out of their bonds and got out of the circle, while each pushed their stunned guards into the position they once occupied. No sooner had they all done this than Thanatos cried out the final words of the incantation and jets of light erupted from each of the six circles. Kain turned around just enough to scream in pain and rage at Robin as the light enveloped and consumed him, leaving nothing behind as the five beams on the point bent inwards and converged on the middle before collapsing into the circle and covering it to the edge in red-orange light. It sank downward stunningly fast and as Robin peered over from his position on the opposite edge from Thanatos he saw a seemingly endless shaft of fire, descending straight down.

"You're too late, Titan!" Thanatos laughed manically. "You can't hold the world back from its new destiny!" The rushing sound of wind filled the room along with blasts of hot air from the fiery chasm. Robin got quickly to his feet. He looked at Raven, stared into her eyes for a moment. Then she nodded her head almost imperceptibly, and began to look at the other Titans.

He took a few steps back from the edge, gazing around. Then looked straight at Thanatos. The larger man seemed to know what was coming, because he threw his gun away and began running right at the fiery abyss, key clutched in his hand. Robin started sprinting forward at the exact same moment.

He leapt over the lip of the precipice, he felt himself being propelled faster for a moment as a green bolt streaked past him riding atop a blue-white beam. He knew Beast Boy was overhead, to try and catch him if he didn't make it. He could feel the sickening heat as he passed over the rift, he saw a glint of gold, he reached out and tried to grab it, but missed. Then felt a massive hand grab hold of his right ankle. He felt himself slowing down considerable. Then he was falling. He managed to stretch out one hand at the last moment and catch the edge of the cliff.

Sheer rock was all he had to hold on to, his right arm was straining to keep a grip on the edge, but the weight at his leg was far more than he was used to lifting. Thanatos hung one-handed from his right leg, his left hand dangling uselessly at his side, the result of the starbolt and sonic blast Raven had telepathically directed her teammates to fire at the hand holding the key. She had given him the extra boost he had needed to cross the chasm, but Thanatos had stopped that. He had even felt Beast Boy trying to approach him, but his form just couldn't stand the heat radiating form the fire only a few yards below where they were hanging. And he could tell why.

Robin felt like he was in an oven, the flames were yards away, but he could feel them as though they were licking at his heels. The air seemed to want to combust in his lungs as he struggled to breath it in. All the while, his arm quickly growing weaker under the strain. Then he saw another glint of gold. Thanatos saw him reaching his left hand for thee key, handing on a jagged piece of the edge, only a few feet from him, he wrapped his own, damaged left arm around Robin's knees, and hoisted himself higher on the Boy Wonder, who let out a cry of pain.

Robin could feel his fingertips touching the end of the key. Thanatos' own outstretched hand was closing in on his. He reached as far as he could, and with all his might used his right arm to propel himself over to grab the key and hold on with his left arm, now facing out, his arm twisted backward. Thanatos slipped lower, his grunt of pain loud as his left arm swung back down to his side, his remaining arm holding fast to the top of Robin's foot.

"You'll come down to Hell with me. I'll regain all my power and still destroy your pathetic race Titan! And I think I'll start with your fellow heroes!" He yelled up at Robin, laughing again manically. Robin could feel his fingers slipping. When he fell, he could let go of the key, they'd both be destroyed, but Earth would be saved. He steeled himself for the consuming fire. He could feel the last bit of his grip slipping away. His whole arm felt like it would tear off, he could feel his fingers slowly sliding off the edge as they swam from sweat inside his glove. Then he lost it and began falling. He was ready to die, he supposed, especially if it would save his friends when suddenly slender, steely, fingers wrapped around his wrist; his mind fired back into action and his hand responded, seizing the wrist and gripping tightly.

He looked up, Raven was flat against the edge, leaning over at the waist, her whole upper body coated in her own black energy, tightly gripping Robin's forearm. Her face was dripping sweat, the expression splashed across it was methodically determined, he could see the anger in her eyes. He looked back down to the stunned Thanatos.

His free hand reached over to his belt, and found a bo-staff.

"Say hello Trigon for us!" He twisted the staff and activated it. It shot out vertically, crashing into Thanatos' head. He lost his grip and fell down, down past the rock face, and into the torrent of fire below, a wisp of flame obscured him and when it had passed his falling form was gone.

"Raven, it's getting pretty hot down here…" He said as he looked back up at her. She smiled and lifted him up to edge before standing up and letting him swing his leg over the side and climb back up over the side. He collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. The energy around her disappeared and Raven sank to the ground next to him, just as the other Titans ran around the edges and came to them.

Robin sat up, and looked down at the key still clutched in his left hand, then at Raven. Then he stared over the edge of the abyss for a moment before turning back to her.

"Will it work?" 

"Yes, I think so."

Robin looked at the key again, before tossing it over the side, watching it plummet until he lost it in the surge of fire. There was a short, low rumble that came up the shaft, then another large jet of flame out of the center, and suddenly it was gone. The concrete floor had returned, the markings had gone, and the cool air of the room seemed to blink back into existence. It washed over him all at once and it was just as good as diving into cool water on the hottest day of the summer. He let himself fall lazily backward, his arms splayed; Raven joined him and the other Titans all sat down around the two.

"That was awesome Robin. Coolest thing I ever saw. And I'm a superhero for god's sake!" Beast Boy exclaimed s he started going through a blow-by-blow recount of what had only happened a few moments ago.

Robin turned his head, intending to thank Raven, but found her eyes already looking at him from her own position on the floor. They stared at each other for a moment, and an understanding deeper than her reading his thoughts passed between them, and nothing needed to be said.

He sat up just as a swat team led by Lt. Keys burst through the door.

"Oh, well, I guess it looks like we're a little late for the party."

"Actually," Robin lifted himself up on his elbows; sad at having to leave his comfortable position simply not moving on the floor "you got here just in time. You split up Thanatos' few remaining men, and that gave us all a chance to fight back. How's the wound?"

"Ah, it's just a scratch. But Thanatos? Is he the one behind all this?" 

"You know him?" Cyborg asked, getting up. The swat team had gone over the room, quickly making sure everything was safe before standing at the door with Keys."

"He's the biggest crime boss on the West Coast. Where is he? What happened to him?" Keys asked, looking at Robin.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Oh fine," Keys sighed and started walking out of the room "I've had enough unbelievable things for day."

"Raven, do you think you've got enough strength to get us back to the tower?"

"Yes, I think I could do that." The other three Titans gathered more closely around the seated two.

"Cyborg, tell my bike and the T-Car to auto-pilot themselves home." Just after Cyborg opened the panel on his arm and quickly typed in a few commands, black energy encased all five of them and they disappeared from the room.

**6:22****am **

The Titans appeared in their main living room, just to the left of their massive couch.

"I don't know about you guys…but I could really do with some sleep." Cyborg yawned, stretching his arms out over his head.

"I hear that." Beast Boy replied, rubbing his eyes.

"It's beautiful." Raven whispered, as she stared through the group out the window. They all turned and saw the sun cresting over the mountains, then burst over the horizon and into the golden, cloudless sky.

"Such wonders of this planet…" Starfire muttered, transfixed.

Just as the light became brilliant enough to force them to shield their eyes, the alarm next to the gargantuan TV started blaring. They all snapped out of a reverie and looked from the alarm to Robin.

He sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"No rest for the weary." He smiled and then turned and ran towards the door, the other Titans close behind him.


End file.
